Sewing machine mechanisms



Nov. 17, 1959 R. E. BowlN 2,912,946

SEWING MACHINE MECHANISMS Filed Jan. 30, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. VCA/A72@ E. 50W/N Nov. 17, 1959 R, E, Bowm 2,912,946

; SEWING MACHINE MECHANISMS Filed Jan. 30, 1956 y 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 52 O y L I j ZZ INVENTOR.

Q/cA/e 5. 50M/V United States Patent C) i SEWING MACHINE MECHANISMS Richard E. Bowin, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application January 30, 1956, Serial No. 562,238

2 Claims. (Cl. 112-215) This invention relates to sewing machines and particularly to modifications to a sewing mechanism to permit the smooth, undamaged stitching of ribbed, net, or mesh material, which may or may not have elastic cords therein, or the safe stitching of wire-like elements on the surface or within material to other material.

It is common practice to sew or stitch webbed elastic material to cloth or other fabric with a normal sewing machine. Sewing machines are also used for sewing cloth or fabric to tape-supported wire hooks and eyes or other wire elements. Attachments for accomplishing the sewing of tapes having hooks and eyes thereon to fabric are disclosed in Patent No. 1,732,394 of October 22, 1929, and Patent No. 1,907,674 of May 9, 1933. These sewing machine attachments, however, require considerable space and changes in the sewing mechanism, while the present invention requires the minimum of modification of the stitching elements.

The present invention requires the simple addition of a strand-positioning pin or pins, which might be called pips, and which may be attached to the areas surrounding the needle hole of the feed dog, the throat plate or the presser foot, or combinations thereof, to obtain the positioning of the rubber cords in elastic bands, other types of strands, or the wires of hooks and eyes to permit a needle to avoid them. This simple addition to the normal sewing elements is all that is required in the majority of instances to stitch a stranded fabric without having the needle pierce the strands and push them to the outer surface as loops or frayed material. The invention also provides means to position the strands so they may be pierced by the needle when the strands are to be sewed in that manner.

The principal object of the invention, therefore, is to facilitate the stitching of stranded material or taped wire elements or material with wire, metal, or wire-like pieces already sewn or woven in or on it, or made of such elements.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved sewing mechanism for the stitching of stranded, ribbed, or webbed material or wire units.

A further object of the invention is to provide an attachment to the present-day sewing elements to permit stitching which does not damage ribbed material or metal units being sewn.

The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of this invention, both as to the manner of its organization and the mode of its operation, will be better understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a perspective view of the sewing elements embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the sewing elements shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view showing another position of the sewing elements of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the throat plate taken along the line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Patented Nov. 17, 1959 Fig. 5 is a plan view showing a modification of the throat plate shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a side elevational view showing a modification of the presser foot shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is an elevational View showing another modification of the presser foot of the modification shown in Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is a bottom view of the presser foot of the modication shown in Fig. 7 and taken along the line 8-8 of Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a bottom View of a modification of the presser foot shown in Fig. 8;

Fig. l0 is a side elevational view of another modification of the sewing elements shown in Fig. 7;

Fig. 11 is a side elevational view showing the sewing elements of another modification of the invention;

Fig. 12 is a bottom view of the presser foot shown in Fig. 11 taken along the line 12-12 of Fig. 11;

Fig. 13 is a view illustrating the operation of the invention in sewing taped metal or Wire fasteners.

Fig. 14 is a modification of the invention to permit the sewing through or piercing of the strands of stranded material; and

Fig. 15 is a modification of the invention shown in Fig. 14.

Referring now to the drawings, in which the same reference numerals indicate like elements, and particularly to Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, the front end of a standard sewing machine shown at S has a needle 6 and a needle-guiding mechanism 7. A presser foot is shown at 8 on a mounting arm 9 and a thread guide 1t). A bedplate 12 has a throat plate 13 therein through which a feed dog 14 oseillates to feed material, such as shown at 15 in Fig. 2, under the presser foot 8. As shown in Figs. 2, 3, and 6, the material 15 is made up of strands shown in cross section at 17, these strands being either cords, elastic bands, or the like.

As shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, Vthe normal operation of the needle 6, presser foot 8, and feed dog 14 is that the feed dog with its teeth 18 rises upwardly in the slots 2i) of the throat plate 13 and moves the material a certain distance and then lowers it, leaving the material on the throat platel13 and bedplate 12. The needle 6 then pierces the material with the thread and returns to the position .shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The feed dog then advances the material 15 another predetermined amount, and another stitch is made by the needle. Without the invention, the needle many times strikes the direct center of the cord 17 and the cord is pushed downwardly before the needle reaches the end of its stroke. This causes loops or bumps to be formed on the outer surface of the ribbed material, while in some cases the material is actually damaged. The present invention prevents the needle from striking a cord or a wire so that it cannot be pushed beyond the surface of the ribbed fabric or damaged.

The invention involves the placing, by welding, casting, milling, or other suitable manner, of a pin or pins, or pips, on the throat plate, as shown at 11 in Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, for the purpose of positioning the strands 17 of material 15 so that the needle avoids piercing a strand. The pins or pips 11 may be conical with slightly rounded tips. Thus, as the presser foot 8 presses the material down on the throat plate 13, the pins force their way between the ribs or strands of the corded material, positioning them to permit the needle to pass between them and through the needle hole 24. The arrangement of two pins on each side of the needle hole transversely of the feed motion of the feed dog 14 is satisfactory to sew ribbed material in which the ribs run perpendicular to the feed motion of the material. If the cords or ribs run diagonally, the pins should be positioned accordingly. In the event the cords or ribs run parallel with the feeding motion, pins 26 and 27 on each side 'of the needle hole 28 may be used, as'shown in Fig. 5. These pins may be in either conical form or as rounded knife edges. When sewing wire fastener tape 22 having fasteners 23 therein to a fabric, as shown in Fig. 13, a single pin 25 will move the wire from the path of needle 26.

In sewing certain types of material, it is desirable that the presser foot have a relief section therein to aid the projections to separate and position the strands. Such a presser foot 30 is shown in Fig. 6 wherein the foot 30 has a relief section 31 so that the strands, as shown at 32, may be easily moved from the path of needle 35. The regular feed dog 33 is shown under the throat plate 34, while the needle 35 is shown in its lower position behind pin 11.

As described above, the pins are mounted on the stationary throat plate of the sewing machine. However, as shown in Fig. 7, a presser foot 32 has a double recess in the bottom thereof which forms pips 38 and 42 to separate the cords of the web after a feed dog 39 has placed the material in stitching position. These pips may be elongated transversely of the presser foot on each side of the needle 41 and be of different lengths, as shown in Fig. 8. Other types of presser feet may have equal length pips on each side of a needle 44 or a single pip as shown at 45 in Fig. 9.

In the event of the sewing of heavy material or the shanks of hooks and eyes, as shown in Fig. 13, the pip l on foot`52, as shown in Fig. 10, may be aided by a pip 54 on the throat plate 55. Two opposing pips, as shown, insure the proper positioning of the cords of heavy or thick-webbed material or the metal of hooks and eyes out of the needles path.

In Figs. 1l and 12, sewing elements are shown in which a feeding presser foot 60 is used in connection with a presser foot 61 along with a throat plate 62 and a feed dog 63 which has a needle hole 64. In this arrangement, pips, one of which is shown at 65, are provided around the needle hole on feed dog 63, which would be similar in plan view to the feeding presser foot 60 in Fig. 12, and a pair of opposing pips 66 and 67 are on the feeding presser foot 60. In this case, the needle moves with the feeding foot and feed'dog. Each pair of opposing pips cooperate as in Fig. to insure the proper positioning of a cord or metal wire to one side of the path of the needle 69.

As the invention has been described above, it functions to prevent the needle from piercing a strand or cord in net or webbed material to be sewed. However, the invention is also usable to actually sew the strands by positioning and holding them in a position so that the needle vwill always pierce them. This is accomplished by the modifications shown in Figs. 14 and 15. In Fig. 14, a single pin 71 positions the strands 72 on the throat plate 73 so that needle 74 can always pierce them and go through needle hole 75. For more positive positioning, an additional pin 76 spaced from pin 71 on throat plate 73 along the direction of movement of the material being sewed may hold strands 72 for needle 74, as shown in Fig. 15. Although the pins 71 and 76 are shown on the throat plate, they may be attached to the presser foot or feed dog in any arrangement in the area surrounding the needle hole, as described above.

The only modification oradjunct to standard sewing machine elements, therefore, is the attachment of a conical or elongated positioning pip or pips on one or both sides of the area surrounding the needle hole in either the throat plate, the presser foot, or the feed dog, or combinations thereof, depending on the type of material to be sewn. It is unnecessary to provide additional arms, sensing levers, and cams, to insure the separation of the cords to provide free passage of the needle therebetween or to pierce the strands when necessary. There is no additional equipment to interfere with the operators manipulation of the material being sewn or operation of the presser foot. The invention may be associated with various types of sewing mechanisms having either single or multiple needles.

I claim:

1. A sewing machine mechanism for sewing ribbed material comprising a throat plate for supporting said material while being sewed, a presser foot for holding said material on said throat plate while said material is being sewed, a needle for piercing said material, said needle passing through an opening in said throat plate during the sewing operation, a feed dog adapted to intermittently advance said material between said throat plate and said presser foot in a certain direction, and tapered elements attached to said throat plate for positioning the ribs in said material with respect to said needle during the passage of said needle through said material, said tapered elements being a pair of pins extending from the surface of said throat plate on opposite sides of and adjacent said needle hole and facing said presser foot a line connecting said pins passing through said needle hole and disposed at an angle to the directio of movement of said material.

2. A sewing mechanism adapted to sew corded material comprising a needle, a throat plate for supporting said material, a presser foot for holding said material on said throat plate, said throat plate having a needle hole therein, a feed dog adapted to intermittently advance material between said throat plate and said presser foot in a certain direction and, a pair of tapered pins on said throat plate on opposite sides of, and adjacent said needle hole and extending from the surface of said throat plate toward said presser foot, a line connecting said pins being disposed at an angle to the direction of movement of said material, said pins being adapted to position the cords in said material with respect to said needle.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 116,522 Wilcox et al. June 27, 1871 338,163 Conpropst Mar. 16, 1886 479,740 Dimond July 26, 1892 488,186 Curtis Dec. 20, 1892 639,726 Grieb Dec. 26, 1899 1,864,370 Picard June 21, 1932 2,207,977 Finn July 16, 1940 2,522,587 Stalder Sept. 19, 1950 2,700,351 Schaad Jan. 25, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 905,090 Germany Feb. 25, 1954 

